BANGOR – A group of students from Dexter Regional High School spoke highly Monday morning of a program that started in Maine and is working to create peace and solutions among young leaders worldwide.

The four Dexter seniors participated last summer in Seeds of Peace, a three-week international camp based in Maine that’s dedicated to empowering young leaders from regions of conflict with the leadership skills required to improve relationships and create peaceful coexistence.

The students spoke Monday at Bangor Public Library as part of the Bangor Foreign Policy Forum with guest speaker Tim Wilson, senior adviser and director of alumni affairs and director emeritus of Seeds of Peace International Camp.

The Seeds of Peace program model begins at the International Camp in Maine and continues through follow-up programming with international youth conferences, regional workshops, educational and professional opportunities, and an adult educator program.

Wilson has lived in some of these regions of conflict, and was in East Jerusalem from 2003 to 2006. He has seen firsthand the violence and tension, but explained Monday that the mission of Seeds of Peace is becoming a reality with some of the original participants of the program that started in 1993 now holding leadership positions.

For example, the chief negotiation teams from Israel and the occupied territories each include what Wilson calls “seeds,” or former camp participants.

Living, socializing and talking together at the camp allows youth from various and often conflicting regions to develop empathy, respect and confidence as well as leadership, communication and negotiation skills that will facilitate peaceful coexistence for the next generation.

“We really got to understand the problems that the Middle Eastern kids were facing,” said Dexter High senior Gavin Cote, 17.

He added that it was difficult for the youth from war-torn countries such as Israel and the occupied territories to understand the problems the Maine campers were discussing, such as wealth distribution and education disparity in the state.

“We appreciate what we have here in Maine and the United States even more,” Cote said. “You stop worrying about things that don’t matter as much.”

The students, who said they made lifelong friends through the experience, agreed that what they learned at camp is something they’ll carry with them for the rest of their lives.

“There is no way for anyone to teach you what they’re actually going through,” said Jana Kenney, 18, of Dexter. “You can’t be taught what you learn at camp.”

The students also said media reports should be taken with a grain of salt.

“I learned real quick that you can’t necessarily believe what’s on the news or in the paper,” Kenney said.

The Maine group admitted that they were very ignorant about the situation in the Middle East, and were surprised to learn how interested the Middle East campers were in politics in the United States.

“It’s not really good for kids from other countries to know more about your presidential elections than the people who are going to be able to vote,” said Rebecca Fick, 18, of Garland.

Although each student is set to pursue a different career path, they all have one thing in common.

All four said that their time at camp would continue to be a force in their lives and has helped them understand why it’s important to begin talking now about what they want the future to be like.

Mindy Harding, 17, of Dexter wants to major in Spanish and help underdeveloped countries; Cote plans to be a sports information director and wants to be a Seeds of Peace camp counselor; Kenney wants to become a physician and assist areas where medicine isn’t a priority; and Fick plans to earn her master’s degree and go on to work for Seeds of Peace and then the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

“In order to have real peace you need to start with yourselves,” Fick said. “By the end of camp, it didn’t really matter where you were from … we all came together like family.”

adolloff@bangordailynews.net

990-8130